Career Paper | Strategic Business Communications | Brian E. Burt

Brian Burt

Professor Baldinger

Strategic Business Communications

10 February 2010??????

?

Ever since I first stepped foot on a Habitat for Humanity job site during my Junior year of high school, I knew Habitat for Humanity was one organization I could truly stand behind.?I continued volunteering with Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County through my senior year and went on to become the president of the St. Norbert’s College Habitat for Humanity student chapter during my freshman year in college.?That same year I helped lead a trip over spring break to Augusta, Georgia where we worked for a week with the Augusta affiliate.?It was on that trip that I gained my first glimpse into a whole other realm of Habitat.?

???????????While we did not have many houses to work on in Augusta, there was plenty of work to be done at their new Habitat ReStore.?What a concept.?A store like Goodwill and Salvation Army, but which primarily specializes in new and used building materials. ?Though I enjoy building houses and have some basic construction skills, retail is what I truly have the most experience in.?The more I thought about it, the more the whole idea made sense.?With the ReStores, I could put my retail skills to use and still benefit Habitat for Humanity.

???????????Years later, after returning to South Bend, I began devoting more and more of my time volunteering at the local ReStore in Mishawaka.???When the Spring semester of my Junior year came around and it was time to complete my internship, I applied at the Mishawaka ReStore and was accepted that very same day.?After several years, I finally got my foot in the door.?During my internship, my primary duties revolved around administrative work, in essence an administrative assistant, in addition to coordinating volunteers ranging from high school students to special needs volunteers to community service members.?With the semester ending and my internship completed, I continued working at the ReStore through AmeriCorps over the summer.?Once my contract ended with AmeriCorps in August 2009, my manager proceeded to offer me a part-time administrative assistant position, which I accepted and continue to serve as today.?

???????????Upon graduating, I hope my existing part-time position will be extended to full time.?It is my to make assistant manager within the next couple of years.?Ultimately I hope to become head manager of either the local ReStores here, or have my own ReStore elsewhere in the country.?Though I am not looking to head to graduate school immediately after graduation, I am contemplating pursuing a graduate degree in nonprofit administration two or three years from now.?In fact, the majority of programs that I have already looked at require at least two years of professional experience prior to attending graduate school.

???????????So, you may be asking yourself, as head manager, what would I be doing specifically??For the most part, the ReStores operate like any small business thus as manager I would be doing a little bit of everything.?From ordering merchandise, to hiring and managing personnel, to soliciting corporate and individual donations, to running the store I would be performing the duties of any typical retail manager and then some.?The greatest determining factors of what I would precisely do on a day to day basis would depend on two things: 1) how large the ReStore is and 2) based on size, how many employees I would have to delegate specific tasks to.?Some ReStores are small and rely primarily on three or four full time staff members.?Other stores are larger, or as is the case with St. Joseph County, have multiple store locations thus a much larger staff. ?For instance, besides myself the South Bend and Mishawaka ReStores have a combined paid staff of ten members and around an additional ten volunteers per day.?

???????????Looking back, who would have thought that almost ten years ago one day on the job site would set into motion an entire career path centered on service and retail.?While I certainly look forward to a managerial position with a Habitat ReStore, I hope to move even further up the organizational ladder.??